This project draws upon archival data collected over the past 50 years from the subjects of the longterm longitudinal studies of the Institute of Human Development at Berkeley.
The aims of the current project are to mobilize data gathered in adolescence and at three periods during the adult years in order to trace and assess the major role investments, satisfactions and dissatisfactions as these have evolved over the decades. The analysis is based on the premise that the human life course in contemporary America can best be understood as a product of the continuing interaction between talents, resources, commitments, and opportunities as these are reflected or developed in an interlinked series of social roles, especially occupational and marital roles, and as these are influenced by historical factors (cohort effects), placement in the social structure and the vicissitudes of external events.
The aim of the research is then to delineate the linkages of roles, orientations and satisfactions or dissatisfactions that represent the individual's situation at any point in the life course. Beyond this, we are examining the relationships of husbands' and wives' marital and occupational roles and retirement plans in the later years. Limited data collection will be carried out relating to retirement and retirement plans as the older cohort passes beyond age 65 and the younger cohort approaches 60. In addition to multivariate analyses linking the outcomes of later periods to their antecedents and to spousal correlates, the analysis will be informed by the preparation of life histories for a random sample of 60 study members. Retrospective reconstructions of their lives will be compared with earlier data but the primary function of these detailed life histories will be to illuminate sequences and patterns of stability and change.
| Clausen, J A (1987) Health and the life course: some personal observations. J Health Soc Behav 28:337-44 |
